(Gods and Angels) Grounding Angel
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [AU] Initially, Yutaka is relieved it's not his brother that's hurt, but friends have a way of crawling into the heart of even angels who've sworn their hearts to only one other... And it doesn't help that Kouichi has unintentionally redefined the definition of an angel.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Written for:

Diversity Writing Challenge, g35 – fic that explores death  
Endurance Challenge, weeks 9-10 (first two chapters)  
The Side-Stories/Spin-offs boot camp, #026 – explode  
The Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Steamy Jungle task

New series…kind of. The first fic was actually planned to be my love-buckets one (so that'll crop up towards the end of the year), but I needed something for Endurance that would last only a couple of weeks and had no multichaps that were close enough to completion – so cure new really short one, and cue another fic in this verse that winds up coming out first. XD

I used the word "gods" here, but I don't mean it in a religious sense. It's more like the gods in final fantasy – Shiva and Bahamut and such – that also wind up being summons or eidolons: weapons in the hands of humans. And when thinking what to call their protectors…angels. Demons or devils will crop up somewhere too, because what else to call the opposite of an angel, right?

This is also a side-story from Yutaka's viewpoint and Yutaka's not directly involved with this particular incident. There'll be a more detailed fic focusing on the main players, though I don't expect to be writing that particular fic until at least 2018 (too many other things vying for attention :D).

* * *

Gods and Angels

 **Grounding Angel  
** _Part 1_

The appropriate emotion is mostly dread, and he feels it in abundance, but far too much of it is aimed at the wrong person. Or not _wrong_ precisely, but inappropriate in the current circumstances. After all, Tomoki is perfectly healthy and safe, if equally worried, beside him.

It's a friend and mentor on death's bed and he's only thinking of how easily it can be his little brother, the next time.

At least he understands, now, the difference between an angel and a god. Not servant and master, or protector and protected, but one whose heart belongs to only few people versus one who encompasses the world. Hearing the words those years ago is different from seeing it playing out now, with other angels and gods. And the reports are so muddled, no-one's the least bit sure as to what's occurred.

Yutaka knows enough, though. He cares about few people and his parents and little brother were pretty much it a few years ago. But that was before Tomoki transcended the plane and he became one of his brother's angels: his guardian and his protector as well as his older brother. Before they were both trained, separately and together, and sent out numerous times to protect this world of theirs. Before he grew closer to certain angels, and farther from others, and Tomoki grew close to certain others too: both angels and other gods. If there's a particularly large problem, then they all go out together because they work best like that, but typically it's only one god and whoever many angels they have because the Hall doesn't let problems get that big.

Typically, gods don't come back in a casket either. It's not Takuya though, thank goodness, but that also means he's the god-slayer because angels can't kill gods. It's a law of nature, or the natural order and there's some unseen force above even the Hall that oversees it. There's a dead god though, and two angels and thank goodness those aren't the twins but everyone's in a bad way. And, honestly, everyone's worried, because they might be two different gods and their angels, but they're still supposed to be on the same side.

And gods and angels leave marks in a way no darker creature can, and so the unconscious god is condemned. But not now. The Hall isn't so cruel. Three dead and three survivors, but all three of them are unconscious and injured and carried into the Healing Room. Battle marks adorn all of them, but one of the angels is badly burned as well, and not by fire.

And it can very easily become tragically ironic, since the god they protect is a fire dragon. But it's not fire. The healers can tell that quickly enough, and none of their burn salves work on it. It's not quite energy burn either. Lifewater doesn't accomplish much and three days later, rumours spread of a casket burning.

And at that point, not even Tomoki can distract his big brother. Rather, he gets to witness a rare display of anger. Because angels love and protect their gods beyond anything, but that doesn't make them incapable of loving others. And Tomoki has Izumi, like an older sister to her, and Junpei who's like an older brother to the both of them (and Yutaka's the oldest of them all in that little family knot). But beyond that, Tomoki has Takuya as well: another god and a mentor, and Takuya's angels who've trained and supported all of them. Mentors and mentees and friends, all of them. And while Tomoki is at the top of his list, he cares for all his friends.

And so he flies into the Healing Room and manages to cause even the stoic Kouji to wince and turn. They're up now, Kouji and Takuya too. Kouichi still sleeps though, burning with something not even their best healers can grasp.

'They're just rumours,' Kouji sighs, turning to his brother's still form again. The healers were trying to adjust the burn paste, and the burns were a softer black now, but nothing else had changed. 'Since the Hall can't question us until he wakes up.'

 _What will the Hall do if he never does?_ But he can't ask that question aloud, and it has nothing to do with Kouji being right there, either. Voicing that thought makes it too real a possibility to ignore. _And all I could think about at first was how easily it could have been Tomoki like one of them instead…_

'Stop that.' Kouji rubs his arms a little.

'I'm sorry.' And Yutaka takes a few deep breaths and tries to reign his power back in. Ice and fire are equal and opposite poles in normal times, and perfect sparring partners (whereas two fire elements can burn a camp to the ground if they go too far into it) but this isn't a normal time. Kouji's power is exhausted. Takuya's even more so: he's bundled into a blanket even now and apparently his skin had been ice cold those three days before.

Kouichi, on the other hand, is cold then and burning now: burning from the inside and maybe that's the cause of his external burns or an effect. The healers don't know, and nobody knows their bodies better than the healers or they themselves, and Yutaka and Kouji and Takuya and all their other friends and families can think all they like and never come up with a better explanation.

At least, when Yutaka brushes his palm against his mentor's slick forehead, he pulls away a little of the excess heat.

The healers call Tomoki in after that, and the two brothers take turns fighting the fever until it breaks a week later. By then, Takuya's back to normal as well though Kouji's still shaky (and the healers think there's no helping that at the moment because he's a twin and twins have some overlap with their souls). The others are impatient: impatient because they're frightened, because they want to know, because they want to move around like they always do but they can't with two groups rooted to a single Healing Room.

In actuality, only Takuya's group is stuck. Tomoki can leave if he wants but he put in a request to stay and the healers backed it up. It was the fever, mostly, but no-one calls for a retraction and so they skip through the loophole and remain. Friends will do it anyway, if the Hall is feeling generous. But they're impatient too. They keep on sending the baron, and he goes back empty handed because neither Kouji nor Takuya have much to say.

All they know is that Takuya doesn't recall doing anything that could have killed the other god. 'I was so far outmatched, anyway. Went for one of his angels instead hoping that would stop him, but…'

But instead it had only angered him further, from the sounds of it. And after that is a muddled mess. Kouji claims he killed the other angel, but the death of the other god and his brother's injuries are still unexplained. And it's nerve-wracking, waiting, even if the possibility of a crime has been vetoed because there's an unanswered question there and a question possibly Kouichi won't be able to answer as well, when he awakes. But it's dangerous knowledge, since it's not easy to kill a god at all.

In the last visit, the baron tells them they'll probably be reassigned to the World Tree, if there are no answers forthcoming. Protecting the stairs to the Hall without ever stepping off the bottom one and killing anyone who approaches without explicit permission from the Hall. It's a mind-numbing and lonely job, far more a punishment than a reward, but the Hall has always felt it best for those whose powers can't be controlled.

Which leads to them hoping that Kouichi _does_ have some idea of what's going on and Takuya almost searing a hole through the wall of the Healing Room under the weight of worry and self-blame…

And there's little the rest of them can do but be there.


	2. Chapter 2

Gods and Angels

 **Grounding Angel  
** _Part 2_

Kouichi wakes up somewhere in the third week and the relief is dizzying: physically dizzying. The healers think it's because it's drained their energies somewhat: being so close to someone whose every fibre goes towards mending their broken body and soul. And when there's not enough in that body, they reach out for the next, the nearest – They all know this, but they don't mind. It was all they could do at the time and so they do it.

Kouji is, rare for him, asleep on his chair and only Yutaka and a healer is awake to witness his brow furrowing and his fingers twitching again. Once the fever broke, he's been restless: as though caught in the thoes of a nightmare before the healers snatch it away. But this is different. The healer checks him quickly and then makes an excited squeak and dashes off.

So when hazy blue eyes open, there is only Yutaka.

He should wake Kouji. He knows he should, especially when that name falls from his brother's lips: dry and hoarse and pained. But reality falls away in such moments and, right then, there's only the two of them. Even for two big brothers who'd sacrifice the world to protect their younger ones, because Tomoki's not in danger now and he hasn't been in weeks, and Kouichi's has finally come to an end.

'He's asleep,' Yutaka says finally, the spell broken – and now he feels guilty because if it had been Tomoki, he'd want to be the first one there. 'I'll –'

But Kouichi is smiling faintly and closing his eyes. 'Loophole,' he sighs.

Yutaka has no idea what he means – and when he does wake up Kouji and the healer hurries back with the baron in tow, they understand no better.

So they have to wait for Kouichi to explain himself. And he does, after floating in and out of consciousness for another week until he can manage a solid half-hour of conversation. And that process is so much faster than the wait for him to awaken and they chatter and tell tales of all that's passed and very carefully refrain from mentioning the baron or the Hall or the World Tree they've been threatened with.

Though when he does explain – and it turns out he remembers far more than the other two – it complicates things even more.

The general way of thinking is that angels can't kill gods. No-one's sure whether that's a safety mechanism the creator of the world has built into all of them, some sort of binding or curse, or simply differences in power, but never in the history of the world has an angel killed a god before. And sure, Kouichi almost kills himself doing it, but he does pull it off and that boggles the minds of the baron, and the rest of the Hall.

Kouichi has always been an exceptional angel. He's one of the few who can use multiple weapons without a problem (his brother can use different types of swords but he's still restricted). He's the one who's trained Yutaka and Izumi and Junpei and many other angels (though no-one's really sure who's trained him, because it's definitely not Kouji's teacher). He's the one who used to scout new enemies so the Hall knew who to send to defeat them – but that was before his brother became Takuya's angel. Now the three of them go onto the field together.

He tells the story now, and Yutaka listens more carefully than he means to (and he's sure the others do to) because Kouichi rarely does tell stories that involve him. That's why he's such a mystery. He has a past no-one fully knows (except maybe Kouji, but he'll never tell). And the Hall must know something as well, because the air of mystery isn't malevolent or suspicious in the least – or at least it wasn't.

The Hall worries. Worries that their scouting angel with a mystery past has proven able to kill a god. Worries that there's an angel capable of killing a god and what does that mean for other gods? After all, not all gods get along as well as Takuya and Tomoki. It might have been a blessing against Lucifer who'd taken out a god but underestimated the accompanying angel, but what about these rivalries? It changes the playing field: the playing field they've been used to preceding over. They're afraid and they don't know what it means for anyone anymore.

They're all confined. Those of them who hear the explanation because they don't want it getting out, don't want everybody else to panic. But at least there's a fair number of them and, aside from the healer who does his job and nothing more, they're all friends. Tomoki and his three angels. Takuya and his two, as well as his little brother who's not quite old enough yet (but he's almost there, and then he'll take the trials like his brother, he says) and three sets of parents. It's a bit of a crowd, and it puts the Healing Room out of commission so that's an inconvenience for the others who'll have to travel to the next nearest one if they need it. They won't know, though. Time has a habit of going slowly in confinement.

It's not so bad though. They're all friends, after all, and in any case, Kouichi definitely needs his rest and it won't hurt the other two either. He doesn't say much after the initial tale, but Takuya and Kouji do wind up discussing Lucifer quite a bit, with his comments along the way, while Tomoki plays with Shinya.

When Tomoki's training with Takuya, he watches them instead.

None of them ask Kouichi if there's anything else because they know he doesn't want to talk about it. They also know it bothers him though. It's easy to see. He's never been the chatterbox Takuya is, but he talks more than his brother usually. He's barely talking at all now. And he seems to only half-heartedly do his exercises.

Considering Junpei's gotten scolded a multitude of times for that very thing, he's having the time of his life doing the scolding instead. And it is amusing to watch. But Yutaka (and Kouji and Takuya too) knows Junpei will scold and prod but never push, and Izumi will never push either. They're just not that type. Kouji pushes Takuya and Takuya pushes Kouji, but their's is a different relationship and Kouji can't push Kouichi. That's the same as Tomoki pushing Yutaka and even if the twins are the same age, their experiences in early life have been very different.

So if anyone winds up pushing in the end, it'll be him and even that's awkward because he was a student, too. And he doesn't want to. People crack when they're pushed too hard and despite over a month in the Healing Room, Kouichi still looks fragile. Took in far more energy than his body could handle, and the healer can say that in confidence now that he knows the full tale. Somehow managed to absorb Lucifer's ultimate attack and send it right back but absorption isn't a fire trait at all. And absorbing direct attacks is another ballgame, even for steel traits. It's killed a lot of people before.

But when the healer jabbers on about such things, Kouichi just looks at his lap and fiddles with his blanket, and they're sure there's something else going on.

And when he pretends to nap after the baron talks with him again, Yutaka decides he really does need to stop bottling whatever's bothering him up. So he pokes and prods, and surprisingly, it doesn't take any time at all to yield results (because, it seems, Kouichi has been wanting someone to prod as much as Yutaka has been itching to do the prodding).

He says he'd skipped a part of the story. Initially, the fight had been three one on one battles: angel against angel and god against god. Except the angel he fought had more than just physical weapons. She had knowledge, and words, and she wasn't afraid to use them.

Yutaka understands without understanding. Knowledge can be cruel as well as kind, and he remembers how angry and helpless he'd felt when he'd failed his trial and Tomoki had succeeded it. And this is similar. Different, but similar.

Yutaka knows why he picked himself, but he doesn't know why Kouichi's picked him. Regardless, he's poked a hole. And now he listens.


	3. Chapter 3

Gods and Angels

 **Grounding Angel  
** _Part 3_

Yutaka knows Takuya isn't the first god Kouichi's protected. No-one becomes an angel without a god to protect and he'd been an angel before. What he doesn't know – until Kouichi tells him now – is that god hadn't been killed by otherworldy creatures like what they were granted these powers to fight, but by another god.

Lucifer, to be precise, though Kouichi hadn't known that until the night he killed the other god. 'And it wasn't even for that,' he says. 'Cherub was half-mad by the end so it was more a blessing for him. But he would've killed my brother with that attack and I couldn't – I couldn't allow that.'

And that's natural, as far as Yutaka is concerned. He'll do the same for Tomoki, no doubt. Except Kouji isn't a god. He's an angel like his brother. An angel who's devoted to his god.

Yutaka thinks he understands where that part's going. Kouji and Takuya have a relationship beyond their god and angel status, but not Kouichi. Kouichi is there because of his brother and no other reason – and yet the conduit of power and magic still flows. An angel of an angel, not an angel of a god, and yet the Hall's said nothing. Hadn't they seen? Hadn't they known?

There's more though. This is part of what worries the Hall – because maybe that's the loophole, Kouichi thought and they think now. An angel devoted to a god can't kill a god, but an angel devoted to another angel… But how many of those were there? Most angels don't survive their gods, let alone find another one. Yutaka can't imagine doing it, unless maybe he falls in love. Maybe Kouji would have, if his brother and beloved had both been gods but it's never a question there. Kouichi's an angel, not a god. Like Yutaka, his little brother is too close to his heart to be a god.

There's a deeper story though. About that old god. _Half-mad by the end of it._ What does that mean? But Kouichi shakes his head. 'The Hall wants all the details. But they don't matter now. They just want to know, since it happened before the Hall.'

'Before the Hall?' Yutaka asks. He remembers that. But he was too young to take the trials then, let alone Kouichi. He would have been barely old enough to even _recall_.

'Yeah,' Kouichi agrees, and explains how they'd tried to change the system. A group of gods, including Lucifer. And the people they'd cajoled into their cause, like Cherub who'd been having problems with his angels. Kouichi's not sure what, and considering he was four years old at time, Yutaka is impressed with how much he does remember, and understand. Even if it's something he can't accept a four year old being involved in, let alone understanding.

But it does explain why Kouichi is so much more proficient in fighting than the average angel. He's what those humans in the half-plane call a child-soldier, when they thought children so young could be trained efficiently but also moulded into relationships instead of making use of those that naturally formed. But things had gone wrong and the only part of that he knows for sure is that he'd lost his memory of the events. He remembers the beginning (though he'd forgotten that temporarily as well) and the end, but not the time in between and he seems a little sad as he says it, because the Cherub from the beginning was kind, and from the end was cold and cruel.

And the words of the other angel, the one he'd been locked in battle with? That Cherub had chosen him in particular, that he was Cherub's "greatest gift."

Yutaka's face twists at that, but something didn't quite match. Kouichi had said that Cherub had been kind before. Though what kind man picked a child to be a child soldier anyway?

'Not like that.' Kouichi catches the twisted expression. 'You know how Kouji and I'd lived separately.' He had: something only friends knew. 'He'd known about Kouji. Knew we'd meet one day. Knew we'd protect each other over the world. And he knew I wouldn't fall in love or anything like that beforehand.'

'He'd planned it,' Yutaka realises. 'Knew you'd probably wind up under another god, because of your brother. Knew Lucifer and the others would eventually come out into the open. He made it so you'd be an angel of an angel – and strong and experienced enough to take down a god when even another god couldn't do it.' And that's good for their side, but also sad, so sad, that a kid has to wind up a weapon like that.

He says it. Kouichi shrugs. 'Better me than someone else,' he says. 'And it's also the reason I saved my brother last month. I can't regret it.'

 _No…_ Yutaka supposes. _He can't…_ And maybe, if it had been him and Tomoki, he mightn't be able to regret it either.

And then there's silence. That's all there is to the tale but the Hall digs deeper anyway. Until they finally accept Kouichi _has_ nothing more to tell them and they let it go. And they change things. Re-examine all the god and angel relationships and redesignate them. And there's a row in the Hall and Kouichi is rather upset at well at some of the names that crop up.

Yutaka, when he hears, is upset as well. Wanting to call them demons or devils. Really? Angels of angels, which is what Yutaka's been saying in his head, sounds a lot better. And the evil connotations with demons and devils… But they all know those with free will and the capacity for knowledge fear the unknown. It still doesn't make it fair. Just how it doesn't make it fair how the Hall hounds for information, even if they need it to make informed decisions about the organisation of the world. The knowledge that it is possible for an angel to kill a god is important and will change the hierarchy. And Kouichi will either be buried or put at the front of that, paying for something other older people orchestrated and he'd just wound up the unknowing puppet…

He finds himself embracing the other, just like he'd embrace his little brother after his nightmares when they were children together. And Kouichi squeaks a little in embarrassed surprise but then lets him, because he's an older brother too and this is his job, usually, and he's not usually on the receiving end. And even when he is, it's one of his students (sometimes older and that makes a funny picture) thanking him for showing them some trick or other that got them out of nearly being killed.

Yutaka wonders if he'd been one of those as well. He can't quite remember, and he can't quite think either because the others are suddenly there and being distracting, and Kouji is deciding to play the little brother card and asking if his big brother has a crush. That descends into a pillow fight and the mood lifts like a heavy cloak ripped off –

But then the baron appears and they freeze, Kouichi and Yutaka still red faced. But the news is good. They'll go on as before, for the most part, getting the difficult missions that less experienced gods aren't expected to be able to handle, and as few as possible so they'll be free for a new primary goal. They've reviewed all the angels and pulled out a few others (including Junpei, to everybody but Izumi's surprise) and those teams will train harder so they can handle the same level of fighting, and they'll be the net that catches the rest of Lucifer's friends.

There's further plans, but the baron doesn't tell them yet. And what they know for now is enough. Things won't change too badly, though everyone's going to be exposed to monsters of higher levels but there's a higher enemy on the loose as well so that makes sense. And when that enemy's no longer around, then the rest of the plan will come out: a final fate no-one except the Hall knows quite yet, but the baron doesn't look sad or stern so it can't be too bad, Yutaka thinks. And he's glad. They'll all still be around, busy for the most part but together (and what a stroke that is, that Junpei's blatant crush on Izumi turns out to be honest to goodness love and manages to keep the two groups together).

They'll also be fighting more dangerous battles from hereon in, and Yutaka is surprised to find, in retrospect, that he's more worried about Kouichi than Tomoki…which is probably appropriate, considering the circumstances…but also lends some weight to Kouji's uncharacteristic teasing of the two of them. But isn't he jumping the gun a little?


End file.
